[06/11/07 - 10:44 AM]Start 'Er Up! "American Body Shop" Debuts on Comedy Central(R) on Sunday, July 8 at 10:30 P.M.On July 1, the premiere episode of "American Body Shop" will be available for free download from both iTunes and xBox a full week before its on-air debut.

NEW YORK, June 11, 2007 -- Gas prices too high? Put on the brakes and settle in to COMEDY CENTRAL's new series, "American Body Shop," a half-hour narrative that explores the completely dented world of car maintenance, body work and the people who toil in it. "American Body Shop" premieres on Sunday, July 8 at 10:30 p.m.

"American Body Shop" presents a view into the inner-workings of an auto body shop and the accompanying, often eccentric, characters who work there. The desert outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona play home to Desert Body and Custom, a genuine, certified auto body and detailing shop run by a genuinely certifiable staff. Sam (played by Peter Hulne) owns the shop, but his real full-time job is wrangling his unruly employees. Equally unruly is the shop's sense of business ethics -- or, more specifically, lack thereof. Always looking to snare a few new customers, Sam and his team employ all sorts of shady methods to keep the cars rolling in.

The body shop�s stable of mechanics and auto workers includes: Rob (Nick Offerman), a savant-like technician whose solutions are usually far more complex than the problem; Johnny (John DiResta); a displaced Brooklynite who also happens to be a complete pervert; Tim (Tim Nichols), an undersexed prankster whose jokes come at inappropriate moments; Luis (Frank Merino), a Peruvian immigrant who hides a complex and mysterious persona behind a presumed lack of English; and Denise (Jill Bartlett), Desert's put-upon receptionist who makes no effort to conceal her disdain for her male co-workers.

In the pilot episode, Sam must scramble to get the shop up-to-code when an insurance rep threatens to revoke their policy. Unfortunately, he finds that his stubborn employees are firmly set in their rule-breaking ways. As Sam struggles with the shop, Denise hunts down car wrecks so she can plant sales materials on injured passengers and Luis plots revenge against Johnny for his racist remarks.

Future episodes include Rob's attempt to build a custom van for a quadriplegic customer and Luis, who is only attracted to extremely tall women, falling in love with the local women's basketball star.

On July 1, the premiere episode of "American Body Shop" will be available for free download from both iTunes and xBox a full week before its on-air debut. The episode will remain free on both services until July 16. Future episodes will be available for purchase and download the day after they premiere.

comedycentral.com launches the "American Body Shop" website on June 11, introducing users to the ensemble cast of characters with exclusive video clips and character bios, including scenes from a Desert Body and Custom mock infomercial. Leading up to the July 8 premiere and continuing throughout the season, the site will add preview clips from each new episode, in-character video interviews with all six actors, weekly "how to" videos from each character and video tours of the shop's work stations. In addition, the site will include an interactive area that encourages visitors to upload images of their favorite pimped out/custom cars and junk cars or trucks which will be displayed in a user-generated photo gallery.

The debut episode of "American Body Shop" is sponsored by Coca Cola (Vault).

Based on an idea by Sam Greene, "American Body Shop" is executive produced by Greene and Jim Jones ("The Ben Stiller Show," "Austin Stories"), who also directed the pilot. Daniel Powell and Zoe Friedman serve as the executives in charge of production for COMEDY CENTRAL.